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tv   MSNBC Live  MSNBC  November 30, 2012 8:00am-9:00am PST

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congress threw some very cold water on the president's initial offering. treasury secretary tim geithner put the president's cards on the table in those back-to-back meetings on capitol hill. the weekly standard reports that senator mitch mcconnell burst into laughter during his meeting with geithner. house speaker john boehner walked out of his, and he dished a helping of red meat rhetoric straight to reporters. >> you know, the president has warned us about the dangers of going over the fiscal cliff. but his actions have not matched his public statements. members of his own party seem quite comfortable with sending the economy over the fiscal cliff. >> the speaker's remarks riled the left and provoked this response from senate majority leader harry reid. >> he says that democrats have got to get serious about cuts, spending cuts. where is the disconnect, then? >> i don't understand his brain, so you should ask him. okay? >> with only a handful of
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legislative days left on the congress's calendar before the looming fiscal cliff becomes a raw reality, will the president and house gop find a way over the latest road black and back to the bargaining table? >> why did the white house decide to have this as their opening volley when they knew the response would be a negative one that they drew? >> was it hardball opening? yeah, of course it was. the question is, what's the counteroffer? >> i would imagine there has to -- tim geithner is too smart of a guy in this administration is filled with smart people. they must have a serious strategic plan. >> let's get straight into this and joining me now is senator barbara boxer, democrat from california. senator, it is great to have you with me this morning. >> thank you. >> just for everybody that's watching, i want to break down what the proposal is from the president that was offered yesterday. $1.6 trillion in tax cuts. $400 billion in cuts to medicare and other entitlement programs. $50 billion additional in stimulus spending. no real structural reform to entitlement programs. no spending cuts.
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instead, stimulus spending. obviously, the president knew that this would be an unacceptable first offer. so what is the end game here? where is the president's bottom line? >> listen, this is a negotiation. it isn't about the president's bottom line or my bottom line or yours. it's a negotiation. and the sad part is, that the administration, the president, has laid down an offer. there's several things in there we know the republicans like, and yet they refuse to lay down an offer. all they do is come out, and mitch mcconnell laughs, and boehner says it's terrible. there's a fiscal cliff, and this offer isn't good. show me the money, folks. you have the power. you're bragging about the fact that you kept the house. good. show us your offer. put down your offer. now, here's my view on this. and it is the same as the president's in this respect. rough the biggest aspects of the fiscal cliff is the fact that tax rates are going to go up on
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all americans. the senate has passed a bill that would give the middle class 98% of the people their tax cut. it is done. it's in a package. it's sitting at our desk. and all that has to happen is for the house to take it up. the only reason they're not taking it up is they want millionaires and billionaires to get their taxes cut, too. and this was a big issue in the campaign, thomas. so why don't we, instead of throwing insults, why don't they just pick up and pass that part as their own republican, tom cole suggested, let's have some good faith here, and we'll hammer out the rest of it. >> so senator, one thing you say about show me the money, if we talk about the lack of structural changes that are out there for entitlements, nbc's first read makes that point about that saying that the white house is sending the message that if republicans want entitlement reform, they're the ones who have to propose it. so is the white house forcing republicans basically to do the
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dirty work on social safety net programs? >> no. no. i think if you look at the president's program, he's laid out hundreds of billions of savings in entitlements. that's no small feat. and people forget, we've already cut a trillion dollars of spending. so the point is, they have to come up with their package. they're laughing at the president's package. that's their right. but they also have an obligation to put out their package. i promised them i won't laugh at it. i will look at it, as will the president, as will all the democrats. but again, thomas, these things get complex. they don't have to be complex. the biggest issue that's causing the fiscal cliff is the tax rates going up on the middle class. especially in this time now when we're getting out of this recession. we're seeing some robust growth. we want the christmas sales to be good. if the middle class knew that they're going to keep their tax cut, it would put a smile on
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everybody's face. and both parties can take credit for it. why won't they do it? there's only one answer. they're obsessed with protecting billionaires and millionaires. it's a sad state of affairs. >> one thing that we've seen in the days leading up, at least through this week, that there has been optimism from both sides expressed by speaker boehner, also by the president, and also republican tom cole, congre congressman, seem to be on board. now we have conservatives like charles krauthammer putting out their pieces saying let's go over the fiscal cliff, let the president do this. then john cornyn, republican from texas, saying apparently the president wants us to go over the fiscal cliff. this is serious business, demanding higher taxes, more stimulus, no spending cuts and no plan to preserve and protect social security and medicare will not solve our fiscal crisis. it will make that crisis much worse. what is your response to cornyn's reaction? >> well, i would say to senator cornyn, where have you been? we've just had an election. the people had a choice between
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mitt romney and president obama who said let's have a balanced plan, and let's give tax cuts to the middle class. what is he talking about? this is about tax cuts. the president is saying, renew the payroll tax cut. give tax cuts to every dollar earned up to $250,000. i don't know what they're thinking, thomas. but obviously, they are putting it all on the line for the koch brothers and sheldon adelson who earn billions of dollars. they're selfish. and there's a group called patriotic millionaires who are saying please, please, tax us fairly. and here's the point. the president is saying to the millionaires and billionaires, we're just taking you back to the tax rates that you had when bill clinton was president. and i would like to remind everybody, we had the greatest prosperity then when everyone paid their fair share. 23 million new jobs. and why is it? because the middle class had the
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money to spend out there, to stimulate this economy. it's a consumer-driven economy. about 70% of the economy is consumer driven. and the other thing the president put on the table, i understand, is refinancing proposal. >> right. >> where people trapped in 7%, 8% mortgages can go down to 4% and 5% mortgages have money in their pocket. these are responsible homeowners to spend out there. so the republicans, i think they're brooding. i think they're upset. i think they're in shock over this election. and they are behaving badly in this sense. we can join hands and take care of the tax cuts for 98% of the american people. can you imagine if i told you, we were in an argument and i gave you 98% of what you want, wouldn't you grab it? this doesn't make any sense to the folks out there. and that's why the courageous republicans like tom cole deserve a lot of credit. but their leaders don't have the
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message. i don't know what they want. they want a presidential election do-over? that isn't going to happen. this was one of the major issues in the election. let's get on with it and help the middle class, ask the wealthiest to pay their fair share, and we can find savings all over the map. we've already cut a trillion dollars. we can do it. but we need a revenue stream to come in. >> as you say, it's a negotiation. we'll see what they come back with, a counteroffer to come. senator barbara boxer, thanks so much. i appreciate your time. i want to bring in our political power panel, erin pike, ted strickland and reverend joe watkins, a republican strategist. great to have you all here. i know you were listening to the senator there. reverend joe, i want to start with you. the president is going to speak in the next hour from pennsylvania. we're getting live pictures of his plane arriving right now, as i understand it. it's going to be the first time we're going to hear from him since john boehner and mcconnell rejected this initial offer. what cards do the republicans think that they are holding that they can be so ob ststinent at s
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point, joe? >> i don't know if it's any cards. the hope is that we can get this done for the sake of the american people and the time for posturing has passed. it really is a negotiation. and republicans know at the end of the day that revenues have to be raised. and the question becomes is how's that done? is it going to be done by eliminating dividends or done by raising marginal rates? and of course, they're against raising marginal rates. but i think at the end of it all, both sides have to give a little bit. and in a perfect world, we'll probably end up somewhere around $1.2 trillion, you know, raised. >> middle ground, yeah. >> middle ground. somewhere between boehner's proposal earlier of $800 billion and the president's $1.6 trillion proposal. >> governor strickland, the president will speak at a toy company today. and a white house official telling us that he'll call on congressional republicans to stop holding the middle class hostage. house gop leadership has put out its own ad featuring a small business also npa that would be affected by the tax hike for people above that $250,000 line.
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a headline on "politico" that i want to show everybody this week saying "democrats bet republicans cave on taxes oic t oichlt." are taxes turning into this game of chicken between the two parties right now? and is it a risky bet with just ten legislative days left? i know we have 32 calendar days left but only 10 legislative days left to reach a deal. >> well, robert, the people have spoken. over 65% of the american people agree with the president. senator boxer was absolutely right. pass the senate bill. give 98% of americans the knowledge that their taxes are not going to go up. i mean, the president won the election. and some of these guys just don't want to accept the fact that the president won the election handily in the electoral college and now all the popular votes have been counted. and the single thing the president talked about was that he insisted that the rates go up on the richest among us while
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protecting the bottom 98%. and that's what the president's trying to get accomplished here. republicans ought to come on board and get this over with so that we can move forward. >> erin, senator chuck schumer issued this statement as the response to tim geithner's meetings on the hill yesterday. i want to show everybody. if house republicans consider the president's budgeted a new offer, then we await their counteroffer. the ball is now in their court to state what they would do on entitlements and taxes. they have given no specifics so far. so john boehner in that briefing yesterday, he would not get into any of the details about this when asked in press by reporters. was the lead offer, though, all about making republicans tip their hand publicly, and then we know where they're going from there? erin? >> well -- >> sorry. erin, can you hear me? hey, erin, i apologize. your mike is not good. so we're going to work on getting that fixed up. joe, let me ask you, is that a
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way -- the way to get the republicans to tip their hand? because that's the one thing, they've been holding their cards very close to their chest about what they want to do. they don't want to lay out the specifics to look like the bad guy. >> well, i think there's a chance to make this thing work. i think that republicans, as long as they know that there's serious interest in dealing with spending cuts and cuts to entitlements, that they can give some on revenues. again, if the democrats give them leeway in terms of how you raise those revenues, if they don't say it has to be done completely through marginal rates but rather we can do something with dividends, that becomes a big help as well. but those talks need to move along quickly. and democrats need to be willing to give some on entitlements as well. and make sure that we have spending cuts in place that look like we're moving forward where we want to get. >> all right. one big thing that was in the news cycle yesterday, the picture of the president and mitt romney having their lunch. one thing that has come out now,
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governor, is the fact that there is new information coming out from "the new republic" about internal polling data that was taking place deep inside the romney campaign, believing that they would be able to win this election, they had it in the bag. now, the campaign's chief pollster conducted the polls the weekend before the election in several key battleground states. and their estimates, they prove to be way, way off. here are two of the examples. from new hampshire, the polls had them up by 3.5 points. he ended up trailing by 5.6 there. in colorado, campaign polls had them up 2.5 points. he ended down 5.4. how could they have been so off? >> you know, it's a puzzle because i can tell you that the polling that was taking place here in ohio, and i think across the country by the obama folks, never made those mistakes. it's just amazing to me that these pollsters who are supposed
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to know a whole lot about this were so far off. i felt very confident in ohio because although romney did okay, i mean, he came close, he was always about 47%, he was never able to go above that. and that was consistent over months. and i think that was also true in some of these other states. and how the romney pollsters messed this up the way they did is just beyond me. they're supposed to know what they're doing. >> yeah, the data drivenness of the romney campaign. erin, i'm sorry about the mike problems we were having. according to newhouse, the biggest problem was misjudging the voters who would turn out on election day who were a lot younger and a lot less white than the romney campaign had expected. as mitt romney had said, as he gave his one speech hope is not a strategy, is that the biggest lesson that they learned, that republicans can't hope for what the electorate is going to turn out to be on election day? >> yeah. look, the romney campaign thought that it would hit its
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targets and turn out the voters that they thought that they needed, but they did underestimate the kind of turnout that democrats were going to get. i think that's the bottom line. but i did speak to some romney campaign aides just yesterday who said that they were not particularly surprised in the outcome. they were looking at public polls. they heard about the obama campaign's internal polls, and they knew something was a little bit off. so i wouldn't say that they were particularly surprised. >> our power panel for this friday, erin mcpike, ted strickland and the reverend joe watkins, my thanks to all three of you. want to show you live pictures we have coming into us from cairo this hour. tens of thousands of protesters in tahrir square right now standing in opposition to president mohamed morsi and the constitution that was approved earlier today. nbc's richard engel is going to join us live in a moment. possible big news coming from the supreme court today on marriage equality in america. the nine justices are meeting right now. and today's big question. fiscal cliff hardball. should the president be on the road or back in washington hammering out a fiscal cliff
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welcome back, everybody. we are watching some major developments at the u.s. supreme court where the nine justices are behind closed doors considering whether to take up cases that will impact same-sex marriage in america. ten marriage equality cases are on the high court's menu. eight of them deal with the federal defense of marriage act, or doma. joining me now is chris geidner. the man who knows the supreme court inside and out, pete williams. pete, good to have you with us. break it down. which cases are we talking about, and how quickly might we find out whether they will move forward? >> reporter: well, if they're going to take any of these
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cases, thomas, it's very likely we'll find out this afternoon. and i think the most likely event here is that they will grant one of the cases that challenges the federal defense of marriage act. passed in 1966 by congress signed by president clinton, it defines marriage as for federal law purposes as only the legal union of one man and one woman. now, the practical effect of that is that in the nine states that now grant or soon will grant same-sex couples the legal right to get married, those couples are legally married under state law, but the federal government doesn't recognize their marriage, which means that they can't get survivors' benefits, they don't get tax benefits, they don't get social security benefits. about 1,000 benefits in all that are the result of this federal law that's being challenged by several cases. and that's why you say there are at least eight of them, all of which say that the federal law is unconstitutional discrimination. and the challengers also say there's never been another case where congress says, well, we're not going to recognize a
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marriage that the state defines as legal. so i think that's the most likely thing that will happen today. but one of the cases that the justices will be talking about is the challenge to california's proposition 8. that's the voter-approved measure four years ago that stopped gay marriage in california. now, a federal appeals court overturned the ban and did so on a basis that was rather narrow and applied only to california. if the supreme court takes that case, then at the very least, it will decide what's going to become of gay marriage in california, but there's also the chance that the justices, if they take that case, could get to the more fundamental issue, which is can any state refuse to allow same-sex couples to get married? would that violate the constitution? and of course, if they went that far, it would be huge. but back to reality, i think it's pretty likely we'll get the doma case today. the supreme court almost always steps in which states have found an act of congress unconstitutional. you've got several lower court
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decisions that have gone that way. so it seems pretty likely. and thomas, there's no set time here. we may know by, say, midafternoon. >> all right. nbc news's pete williams outside the supreme court, thank you. we check in now with chris geidner. he works for buzz feed. we follow your work. i know you outlined four different possible scenarios for an outcome. take us through those quickly, those four. >> yeah, i mean, pete talked about those scenarios. the possibility today is that the court could either decide to take one case challenging the defense of marriage act -- >> we say that one out of the eight because there are eight different ones that are before them, correct? >> there are eight petitions that are before the court. some of them involve the same cases. there are a few times that, like, the department of justice filed a petition before the court. the house republican leaders who are defending doma filed a petition before the court. and some of the organizations
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like the gay and lesbian advocates and defenders who are backing one of the cases, or the aclu, which is backing one of the cases also filed a report. >> chris, does it matter or does something get their attention more? would doma be more likely to get their attention since it deals with something more on a federal level than would california and prop 8 would on a state level? >> i think what pete was hinting at is that when the court has a federal law at issue, it's more likely to take the case when in this case now two circuits, the first circuit out of boston and the second circuit out of new york have already struck down the law. so when you have that sort of a situation, the justices are -- you've gotten their attention. >> once that happens, what does it do to the states like california? and then you have other states in the country that are looking to put marriage equality into action as law and open it up for people. >> well, when we were looking at the different possibilities that
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i discussed at buzz feed, one of the things that could happen with this case is that they accept the doma challenge. and while they're doing that, they just let the prop 8 case sit before them. and they wait until they've decided what they're going to do with the defense of marriage act. and then depending on the type of decision that they rule in that case, it could be broad enough that it could have an impact on states like california. it could also have impact on states like north carolina that just passed an amendment banning same-sex couples from marrying earlier this year. >> all right. so we all are on the supreme court watch again just waiting to see if they will move the ball down the court, so to speak, moving any of these up for their consideration. chris geidner is buzz feed senior political reporter, great to have you on. thank you. another big story today, the powerball winners. we're going to meet one of the lucky couples today. who are they? plus, hostess.
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can i still ship a gift in time for christmas? yeah, sure you can. great. where's your gift? uh... whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. ship fedex express by december 22nd for christmas delivery. so at roughly 12:00 p.m. eastern time, we'll learn the identity of one of the winners of the second largest jackpot in powerball history. that story developing now in dearborn, missouri, where lottery officials will make the announcement. dearborn's population, just 500 people. so you have to believe this is the talk of that town. nbc's kerry sanders is there live with more on this. kerry, what have you been able to dig up about these people, the winners? >> reporter: oh, you know what? it's really exciting. i'm right now in the north platte high school gymnasium. and usually what they're celebrating here is the girls district champion basketball team because they've won so many champions.
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but today the real celebration is going to be for cindy and mark hill. those are the two here who won that lucky incredible amount of money in the lottery here. you can see the area here has been set up for the powerball presentation. they're going to come out and talk to us. we know that mark is 52. his wife is 51. we also know that when they present them, it likely will be cindy and mark, not mark and cindy. that's because cindy's the one who bought the ticket. she spent $10 on a quick pick and actually when she got the numbers, she went back and didn't even look that night when they pulled the numbers. and it was the next day, she was dropping off her 6-year-old adopted child who she adopted from china, in school when somebody said hey, did you check the numbers? she said no, i better do that. she looked. she apparently told her husband she thought she was going to have a heart attack. she went to her mother-in-law's. she was shaking, and indeed they
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had the winning numbers. their take will be $293 million. it's a lot of money. we're going to try and find out what they plan to do with it. we do know this. their little 6-year-old daughter has said that she would like a pony. and it's a pretty good bet she's going to get one. mark has indicated he'd like to get himself a red camaro. so let's just change the subject for a second and say with this incredible amount of money, because remember, this powerball is a record. what if the winner here and the other winner, which we don't know who it is yet, let's say they decided for a moment to say you know what, altruism, we're going to donate that to our country with this fiscal cliff we're about to hit. what would that money do? there is a blogger in north dakota who actually took the time to do the calculations. so if we took this 500 and some odd million dollars and all of it went to the federal government, it would wind up funding the u.s. government for one hour and 36 minutes. i thought that was interesting. by the way, one thing that all of us have learned, especially
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the national media, as we've been calling this dearborn, missouri, we're wrong. it's dearburn. they're a little upset that we're pronouncing the name of their town wrong. >> teach me this again. dearburn? >> reporter: you've got to say it like mush in your mouth. it's not dearborn, it's dearburn. >> dearburn, missouri. >> reporter: there you go. i think we got it. >> kerry sanders there to meet the hills coming up and a very lucky 6-year-old who will be probably getting a pony for christmas, i'm sure. thanks. just a half hour from now, president obama is expected to give remarks from pennsylvania. it's the next step in his campaign to generate public support for his plan to tackle the fiscal cliff. now, while at a toy manufacturing company, the president is expected to play hardball. white house official telling nbc news he'll call on congressional republicans to stop holding the middle class hostage. traveling with the president, nbc news correspondent mike viqueira. what are you hearing about how the president's words are going to be framed today? >> reporter: well, thomas, the
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election may be over, but the campaign goes on. and the president comes here to hatfield. i think i have that right, pennsylvania. we're just outside philadelphia. just heard the choppers landing outside. the president should be here shortly. he's going to tour this manufacturing facility. this is the rodon group. they make kinex toys like that, a nice swag bag presented to the press. there are 150 workers here. they make building toys, familiar brands to most americans, lincoln logs, tinkertoys. and the point the president is trying to make is not only will these 150 workers, their jobs be in jeopardy if the nation goes over the fiscal cliff, but if the average american family, according to the statistics, has to pay an extra $2,000 in taxes next year, they're not going to be buying any more lincoln logs or toys like this. we cannot endorse any one product, by the way. and therefore this business is going to suffer. if there's one thing that's clear, thomas, from the president's offer through secretary geithner up on the hill yesterday, is number one, they really feel like they have
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the upper political hand. and number two, they're going to play hardball, as you reported. we are still, believe it or not, on the eve of december in the preliminary sort of positioning stages of this negotiation, thomas. >> okay. that's hutfeld, pennsylvania? >> reporter: i believe it is hatfield. i'm getting confirmation here, yes. >> nbc's mike viqueira in hatfield, pa. we are going to be carrying the president's remarks live today at 12:05 right here on msnbc, the place for politics. , something this delicious could only come from nature. new nectresse. the 100% natural no-calorie sweetener made from the goodness of fruit. new nectresse. sweetness naturally. anyone have occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating? yeah. one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. approved! [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'.
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breaking news coming from egypt where tens of thousands of protesters are gathered now in cairo's tahrir square, reminiscent of the egyptian revolution nearly two years ago. now the protesters are denoun denouncing president morsi. in the draft constitution, his islamic allies approved earlier today. our chief foreign correspondent richard engel brings us. the chance of the regime echoing throughout the square, what exactly in the constitution are they so upset about? >> reporter: they are upset not only at the constitution, but also because president mohamed morsi, last week, gave himself extraordinary powers. he made all of his decision final and that they are not subject to any kind of judicial oversight. and then once he gave himself these extraordinary powers, he had his allies, a group of islamists, write a new constitution. imagine in the united states if a freshly minted president five months into his term suddenly
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came out and made an announcement, he said, by the way, the supreme court doesn't matter anymore. congress doesn't matter anymore, and a bunch of my friends have just written a brand-new constitution that gives islamists a great deal more power. that's what brought people out on the street. they are specifically annoyed that certain clauses in the new constitution give more role to sharia law. they are open to interpretation. they potentially could see vigilante-style morality police on the streets. there are very few specific protections for women. and the supporters of this reform process who want morsi to back down, who want the constitution he railroaded through to be destroyed, say they're going to stay here in tahrir square until their demands are met. morsi supporters, however, are also planning a counterdemonstration but not here in tahrir square, tomorrow.
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so far the demonstrations today have been peaceful. but there has been a host of international criticism also coming from the united nations saying that morsi's power grab is illegal. >> there was certainly a lot of hope for egyptians that were looking for a change with morsi after getting rid of hosni mubarak. what options are there for any type of compromise for the protesters? again, this draft resolution needs to move on for approval, but is there time to reach any type of compromise that would appease the protesters that are opposed to it? >> reporter: it seems very difficult. egypt is very divided right now. the one camp, the one here in tahrir square, is anti-morsi, anti-muslim brotherhood. they saw also that the united states has been too quick to embrace the muslim brotherhood, and that has emboldened morsi to allow himself to become a dictator or to become a new phara pharaoh. morsi is digging in.
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he gave a speech last night on television. it was formatted as an interview, but it was still a speech in which he said, i'm sorry. i didn't mean to take all of these extra powers, but i did it for the sake of the nation. >> nbc's richard engel in tahrir square in cairo, thank you. time to look at stories topping the news now. israeli officials are saying that government has okayed settlement construction of 3,000 new west bank units. now, this news comes as palestinians are celebrating yesterday's u.n. vote on statehood. former president george h.w. bush will likely leave the hospital this weekend. doctors say the 88-year-old quickly recovered from viral bronchitis and a secondary infection. a bankruptcy court approved the liquidation of hostess brands. the company says more than 100 companies are interested in buying its famous brands which include twinkies. the court also approved nearly $2 million in executive payout bonuses. michael jackson's father, joe jackson, is recovering from a mild stroke in las vegas.
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family, friends say the 83-year-old is back to normal, talking and making jokes. one of new york's kindest is speaking out today. you may have seen this internet sensation, this picture of showing an nypd officer giving new socks and boots to a barefoot homeless man. on "today," the officer talked about his newfound celebrity. >> surreal and extremely humbling. it's a great experience. i think it's a lot about the people, though, because you see such great comments. people are saying that, you know, their faith in humanity is restored, and that's the biggest thing that i could take away from all this. and just hours after new york city police arrested lindsay lohan yesterday, police in california charged the 26-year-old actress with several crimes for wrecking a porsche back in june. lohan's long criminal history includes at least five arrests including rehab, probation and jail time. ♪ if it wasn't for you ♪ don't know what i'd do
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sitting down may be harmful to your health. according to research from the uk, sitting for prolonged periods of time increases the risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes. the results held true even after including participant exercise. this hour, president obama is on the ground in pennsylvania trying to build public support for his tax proposal. but that's just one part of the fiscal cliff debate. the other side of this, the massive spending cuts that have now educators ringing the alarm. they warn of increased class sizes, the elimination of after-school and summer school programs, libraries could close, all this as the u.s. tries to close an achievement gap. joining me now to continue our education nation conversation, world-renowned educator dr. steve perry, also host of tv
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one's "save my son." steve, it's great to have you here. the secretary of education, arne duncan, has said that 9 million students would be affected by the cuts including nearly 2 million that are already living in this country in poverty. when we talk about special education needs for the kids of our country, we're essentially about to take away resources from the students that need it most. however, we're not talking enough about that. >> one of the reasons why there's even a conversation about cuts is not so much because there's less money coming in, it's because of so much money going out. where we spend the most amount of money in education is on personnel. me and the benefits that you pay us. many of us receive in some cases 30% to 50% of our salary over in benefits. and so we keep paying more money for a service that's not better. one of the challenges that we have as public educators is to come up with a better performing school system, not just to say to the public and taxpayers, we want you to pay us more money. >> all right. so there was this recent report
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out of harvard that found that students in latvia, chile, brazil are making academic gains three times faster than american kids. our students ranking 5th in math, 17th in science, and 14th in reading. now, the president does not support education cuts. but this is what congress, you know, comes up with, cutting in places where we need it most. the seeds of our future are our kids and their education. what does this say about our priorities? >> our priorities are focused on the adults in the schools and not the children in the schools. we want to make sure when we're talking about education reform, we want to make sure that it's reform around the edges as opposed to creating a better school system. the a.c.t. which last year became the most-taken test found that 75% of all children in america who took the test, in fact, were not college ready. that's not 75% of the kids in the hood. that's not 75% of black and latino kids that listen to hip-hop, that's abercrombie & fitch white kids
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in the suburbs not ready to go on to college. we need to make sure that if we're going to pay a world-class cost for education, we need to get a world-class product of education. >> so for parents out there that are listening to this and this is perking up their ears, and maybe they weren't thinking that this was going to truly affect them and their kids, what do you think the biggest message to them is? >> well, you're not just parents, you're taxpayers. and we work for you. and you need to hold our feet to the fire as public educators. i'm a public school principal. and in order for us to be more effective, we need to make sure that we're not just spending capriciously, hiring more people, or paying the people that we have more without greater results. we need to have higher accountability. parents have every right and obligation to make sure that if they're sending their child to school for one day, they should be one day smarter. >> dr. steve perry, it's great to have you here, as always. thank you, sir. three square meals under $5? it's time now for the "poli sidebar." cory booker says he'll live on the equivalent of food stamps
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starting on tuesday. that's about $1.40 per meal. the average is about $133 in new jersey. now, as mayor, booker makes more than $13,000 a month. he's honoring a challenge he made to a twitter follower earlier this month. the woman claims to accept but not sure about the timing, though. bo obama in a new white house christmas video. the first dog inspects the white house christmas tree decorations and even stumbles upon a bo look-alike. there staring at that bo with lights hanging out of his mouth. the white house is expecting about 90,000 christmas visitors this year. on the menu at the white house lunch date between obama and romney, chicken salad and turkey chili. jon stewart couldn't resist a jab. >> we do have some footage of governor romney arriving to the white house. i believe that's him there. then he's getting out. and then that.
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. tomorrow marks the 25th anniversary of world aids day and ahead of that milestone the president issued a proclamation asking americans to stand with those living with aids worldwide. grassroots activists are raising awareness. how to survive a plague. peter is the founder of both the treatment action group and aids meds.com. he joins me here in studio. great to have you here. as i said i was a big fan of this movie and i'm glad to have you here to talk about this as we're about to mark this
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milestone. yesterday, secretary hillary clinton shared some very good news on the global battle with aids. take a listen. >> just last week, u.n. aides announced that over the past decade, the rate of new hiv in fecships has dropped by more than half in 25 low and middle-income countries, most of them in subsaharan africa. >> this is good news when it comes to the battle that's taking place in africa but here at home the cbc came out with this report that shows hiv cases were up 72% -- excuse me 72% among the lgbt community, young men, 57% african-american. why are we seeing lapses backwards? >> well, we're 30 years in now and it is a completely unique moment in the pandemic. we're filled with optimism. secretary clinton went before aids activists at the
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international aids conference this summer and, like all the leaders there, said we can end aids. we do have the tools now to actually wind this down. but there's an equal amount of frustration because we're lacking true leadership and we're lacking the dollars. we forget that one of act up's greatest victories was pushing our leaders to spend money on aids research back in the late '80s and early '90s. that money saved the american taxpayer a fortune by saving 8 million lives a year now. we actually can take those therapies now and get them to an additional 7 million people and reduce transmission rates worldwide and slowly end the epidem epidemic. >> real quickly, when you see the images of people that showed up in boehner's office, what do you think of that? >> it was brilliant. it's wonderful to see act up at its best again and playing a
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very forward-looking game. they had a very specific proposal to actually raise $350 billion a year through a financial transaction tax which could be used for many causes, including ending the aids crisis. >> peter, great to have you here. thanks so much. check out peter's blog on this and other world aids day -- world aids day issues, pause.com. thanks again. that's going to wrap things up with me. alex wrager in is coming up next. >> hey, thomas. president obama takes it to the people again. pitching middle class tax cuts to factory workers in pennsylvania. we'll bring you his remarks live. the white house gives the gop its christmas wish list. will republicans respond with lumps of coal? we'll see what's under the christmas tree with melissa harris-perry, sam stein, joy reid and michael crowley and the "f" word, chris hayes explains why the filibuster has become a dirty word in congress, when
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